


A Distant Shore

by juliesioux



Series: Exploring the Future [3]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Angst, Delicity, Dream Sex, F/M, Hospital, Love, Pain, arrow 4x09, arrow 4x10, arrow specualtation, doliver - Freeform, dream - Freeform, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 11:19:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5414864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juliesioux/pseuds/juliesioux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a speculation fic between Arrow 4x09 and 4x10 about how Oliver handles Felicity possibly being in a coma after being shot by Darhk's Ghosts. Diggle is there to help but ultimately can do nothing but prepare for the coming war.<br/>Felicity, though comatose, reaches out to Oliver in a shared dream space that exemplifies just how connected they are.</p>
<p>I was feeling melancholic and wrote this from that sad place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Distant Shore

A Distant Shore

They arrived in Bali in the middle of the night. He barely remembered the taxi ride to the resort Felicity had booked them into as exhaustion kept claiming his wakefulness. What he did remember was the candlelit walkway, plush carpeting beneath his feet, the cool salty breeze coming in from the open windows, the way the sheets felt as they fluttered around their bodies and the feel of Felicity in his arms.

The next day was a haze of gauzy memories. He was so jet lagged that all he did was nap. In the sun next to their private pool, on the beach as Felicity swam in the warm Indian Ocean, and in the outdoor bedroom next to their private lagoon. He was so certain this was Paradise that their neighbour’s alarm clock that went off in the middle of the day seemed like an affront to the deities of the land.

As he fell asleep that night, with Felicity’s had on his chest, he never felt more alive and at peace. Bali had been the perfect choice for them. Plus there was no wifi at this particular resort which meant they could focus on each other.

The next morning, the aroma of coffee awoke him, pulling him reluctantly back to wakefulness. With a sleepy grin, he reached out to the cup being offered to him. One look at her sleep tousled hair and makeup free face, she was radiant in the morning light, and morning coffee became an afterthought. He set the mug aside and pulled her back into the bed with him.

He quickly silenced her laugh with a passionate kiss and they began the day chasing each other’s desire with entwined fingers, breath and bodies.

Oliver had never felt such easy peace. The warm sands and waters of Bali were healing him in a way he never thought possible. Felicity had been right when she said they needed decadence and to treat themselves to something luxurious and tropical.

Watching her swim in the blue, blue water made him feel happiness deep in his soul. He would never forget the way the sun seemed to worship her, turning the air around her golden and alive. 

During the hottest part of the day they would retreat to the outdoor bed by the pool and talk quietly about all that they had left behind. Oliver spoke of Lian Yu, revealing more about his time there and the way those lost years had changed him, of the armour he wore around his heart, of how she had slipped through the cracks and seams and made herself at home in his soul.

For her part, Felicity spoke in a hushed voice about growing up alone in Vegas. How she distracted herself from the bone deep loneliness of missing her father, the only adult in her life who had really understood her at the time, by connecting to the technological and divorcing herself from the pain of feeling. As a child, she had lived in that hurt for so long that it took her years to unlock her heart from that cold and distant place within her. Meeting Oliver had been the last step for her to really understand how to connect to a person.

From somewhere in the distance, an alarm clock was going off again. Oliver awoke thinking he needed to find that thing and destroy it. It kept snapping him back to reality from the dreamy world they were creating with every lingering caress and softly spoken word.

One night, they decided to sleep in the outdoor bedroom. The gauzy white curtains kept the bugs away while allowing the cool ocean air in. The sounds of the waves washing up on the not so distant shore lulled them to sleep after drowsily making love under the star filled night sky.

The mornings were his favourite time of day. They would go down to the beach and swim before the rest of the resort woke up. Everything was quiet and the sky would light up with pinks and purples as it warmed to deep blue with the rising sun.

The days were their own. They explored ancient temples and found places of such sublime beauty they felt as though they had stepped back in time to when no humans yet walked the earth under their feet.

It was at one of these places that he had taken a picture of her. She had walked a few paces in front of him and stopped in front of the entrance to one of the ancient temples. The sunlight was streaming in through the palm trees and fronds making her thin, white cotton dress translucent. Her face was hidden in a sepia toned shadow but her hair and skin reflected the sunlight into a shimmery haze around her body. He could see the outline of her body through the fabric and for one moment she was the only person who existed in his world. The picture he took captured her like he always saw her: a golden light that seemed to emit love and life.

He decided to keep the picture a secret for the moment. Whenever they got back to the US, he would print it off and frame it as a surprise. He often described how he saw her but this photo was it. This was how he saw her and for now, it was for his eyes only.

Later that night after dinner, he pulled her into the outdoor bedroom and gently disrobed her. The way she felt under his hands, the way she smelled from the long day in the sun, the way her body responded to his touch was almost too much. He had to deliberately slow his body and breathing down as he lost himself in her.

They clung to each other as though letting go would cause them to fly off into different galaxies. They would wake up and seek each other out in a haze of half opened eyes and consciousness and they would make love again and again in an act of reassurance and love.

From a dreamless sleep, Oliver heard the alarm clock again. He was really going to have to have a word with their neighbour. Paradise should be free from modern day electronics, he thought as he turned over and reached for Felicity, even she had given up her tablet and phone.

The feel of her skin awoke his desire again and in the quiet, predawn light, he awoke hers with the gentle rasp of his tongue on her most sacred part as he coaxed and urged her to that place between pleasure and ecstasy. He drank her in as she climaxed again and again. Oh how he loved her in those moments when she breathed his name like a prayer and pulled him into her so that he could ride out his own wave of desire and need.

Day followed night like water in a river, seamless and smooth with a gentle current that carried them towards each other and an unknown but deeply welcomed future. When he looked at her all he saw was the promise of forever.

He struggled to wake up. He could hear low, murmuring voices, the rustling of fabric and the faint smell of jasmine. The soft floral scent, mingling with the ocean air, served to help him surface to consciousness. He reached for Felicity and found her place in their bed empty but still faintly warm. 

How was she able to wake up before me? he wondered. He was a notoriously light sleeper yet she was able to get out of bed without him knowing. 

The morning sun was still low in the sky, just barely cresting the horizon, but the birds were singing their morning song. Nestling back under the covers, Oliver slipped gently back to sleep with his hands resting where she should be.

Sometime in the early morning hours, she returned to bed. He felt her hand slip back into his, entwining her fingers with his, and her warm breath on his chest. The perfect moment is disrupted by the sound of the alarm clock and loud voices echoing around him.

He sits up in and looks around in confusion. He feels strong hands on his shoulders pushing him back. He hears his name being called from a distance and doesn’t recognize the voice.

“Oliver! Come on, man, let go of her hand!” the voice calls. “You gotta let the doctors do their job!”

He opens his eyes and sees Diggle’s face. This makes no sense, he thinks, what is Diggle doing here? Why is he holding me down? Why is that goddamn alarm still going off?

Bit by bit, he fully wakes up. He stops struggling with Diggle and instead looks up at him with pain filled eyes. Felicity’s hand is no longer in his and she is no longer in bed beside him.

“I was dreaming of our stay in Bali,” he says in utter devastation, “it was perfect, Dig. I…”

His voice breaks and he can only sit and look at her prone body. He has never felt this kind of desolation before, not even with his parents or Tommy. If he could give his life for her’s, he would but he also knew she would do the same for him and so he sat and waited. Waited for her to return to him.

The nurse gave him a sympathetic look and turns off the alarm. “It’s ok, Mr. Queen, the alarm is just to let us know her IV needs to be changed. She is still stable.”

“When will she wake up?” he asked in a broken voice.

“We don’t know. It could be today, tomorrow or in a few minutes. It is up to her when she wakes up, we just need to keep encouraging her to do it,” the doctor patiently explained, “Until then just keep talking to her and encouraging her to wake up. There are studies that say coma patients can actually hear us and some may actually be dreaming. Just never give up.”

After the doctor and nurse left the room, Diggle sat down opposite Oliver so that he could hold Felicity’s other hand. 

“She’ll come back to us, to you,” Diggle said quietly, “she knows how much we love her but most of all, Oliver, we all know how much she loves you. She was willing to take on Ra’s himself to save you. She would take on the Devil himself if she had to in order to be with you. A coma is just her way of getting some rest. She’ll come back, Oliver, your story isn’t finished. And when she wakes up, you’ll be here.”

Oliver kept his eyes on the floor in front of him, not trusting himself to look up at Diggle in this moment. He knew his friend was trying to comfort him but he was spiralling and could only feel the emptiness her absence had left behind.

“Dig...I’d like to be alone with her.”

It wasn’t a request and Diggle knew it. He looked at his friends from the door before he left. He saw Felicity, his irreplaceable Felicity, hooked up to more machines than he could count, and Oliver, his best friend and one of the strongest men he had ever known, sitting broken and perilously alone next to her.

He needed to rally the troops and get them organized. A broken Oliver was a dangerous Oliver.

Oliver looked up when he heard the door click softly close. He leaned over and kissed Felicity’s forehead, leaving behind a stream of tears he was unaware he was shedding. He pressed his forehead to her’s and tried to will her awake.

His legs suddenly felt too weak to hold him up and he fell, gracelessly, into the chair behind him. Gently he stroked her hand, the one with the ring on it, and lowered his head so that it rested on the bed beside her’s. He opened his mouth to speak but no sound came out. His shoulders shook and silently he sobbed in agony beside her. 

The quiet beeps, clicks and whirls of the machines around them mimicked a lullaby that lulled him to sleep once more. She waved to him from a distant shore, calling him to her and together they journeyed back to Bali and the warm Indian Ocean waters where they could spend quiet days and nights with their bodies and souls entwined.


End file.
